September 28, 2016
Minority & Small Business Week
Page 9
Mural Artist Rises to Top of Profession
Race and culture
rooted in Arvie
Smith’s works
C ervante p ope
t he p ortland o bserver
Full time Portland artist and
social justice advocate Arvie
Smith uses his creative skill in
painting to translate his heritage
and racially-based social con-
structs into beautiful works of
art.
Born in 1938, Smith lived
with his grandparents and great
grandmother, a former slave, in
the Jim Crow South, and pulls
inspiration from his childhood
home as well as the racial-
ly-based riots he witnessed fol-
lowing his relocation to Watts in
south central Los Angeles.
Smith’s works depict vari-
ous facets of historical African
American strife-ridden culture,
like Ku Klux Klan lynchings
(“Strange Fruit,” 1992), the
journey of black slaves on ships
to the United States (“Trail of
Tears,” 2006) and even a redux
of the infamous Edvard Munch
work “The Scream,” featuring a
characterization of the original
Buckwheat from the Little Ras-
cals (We Be Lovin’ It, 2009).
Using vivid colors and
smooth, continuous brush
strokes reminiscent of 18th
century French painters and Ba-
roque styling, Smith fearless-
ly tackles taboo topics like the
intimate relationships between
whites and persons of color by
portraying females as sexual-
ized objects, much like they
by
photo by C hloe d ietz
Mural Artist Arvie Smith works with juveniles at the Donald E. Long Juvenile Center to create five murals for a Multnomah County art
collection called Project Hope. The Portland artist has built a career for creating works that depict various facets of historical African
American culture.
were during slave times.
Smith has had his work
shown in many of the world’s
top cities for art, among them
New York, New Orleans and
Florence, Italy. As the Profes-
sor Emeritus of Painting at Pa-
cific Northwest College of Art
as well as teaching the subject
at the Oregon College of Arts
and Crafts, and University of
Oregon, Smith has cultivated
creative outputs for countless
of students and other youth and
even immortalized his connec-
tion to justice through mural art.
For two years, Smith worked
All-Industry Job Fair Set
Clackamas
Community
College says local employ-
ers will be on site hiring for
open positions when it hosts a
Harvest Job Fair on Wednes-
day, Oct. 5 from 10 a.m. to 1
p.m. in the Gregory Forum at
19600 Molalla Ave. in Ore-
gon City.
Touted as an all-industry
job fair, where employers
with full-time, part-time and
internship opportunities con-
nect with students, alumni
and local job seekers, the free
event is open to the public.
More than 50 employers
are scheduled to participate,
including Target, USDA For-
est Service, PDX Pipeline,
Helping Hands Home Care,
New Seasons Market, FedEx,
Leupold & Stevens Inc., Cre-
ative Minds Learning Cen-
ters, Mt. Hood Skibowl, Cas-
cadia Behavioral Healthcare
and Albertina Kerr.
Some of the industries
and careers to be represent-
ed health care, manufactur-
ing and production, business,
logistics and transportation,
construction, parks, recre-
ation and leisure, warehouse,
shipping and receiving, ad-
ministrative and office, edu-
cation, human services and
retail.
View a full list of employ-
ers and to register to attend,
visit at clackamas.edu/career-
fair.
with men and women being
held in pre-trial detention under
Measure 11 crimes at the Don-
ald E. Long Juvenile Center to
create five murals for a Mult-
nomah County art collection
called Project Hope. The works
are in part based on the youth’s
interpretations but also rely on
Smith’s analysis of conversa-
tions he had with the young
prisoners. Multnomah County
Courthouse houses four of these
8 by 15 foot murals and another
is located in the detention cen-
ter.
Smith is set to begin another
community mural project on the
future home of a Natural Foods
Market which is slated for con-
struction later this year at the in-
tersection of Northeast Alberta
Street and Martin Luther King
Boulevard.